1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an integration server which provides access to one or more services executed by either the integration server or one or more additional servers in communication with the integration server. The invention is further directed to a method of operating the integration server. Finally, the invention is directed to a flow control language and program and to an integration server executing a flow control program to control the flow of data amongst plural services and to control the sequence of operation of those services.
2. Overview of Background
Nearly every corporation now maintains a Web site, and the conducting of transactions and transfer of information over the Internet has become an essential business tool. Customers, suppliers, distributors, and other partners now use the Web to browse catalogs, place orders, execute electronic transactions, monitor inventory levels, check the status of shipments, review account information, and conduct other operations. Web-based storefronts have been integrated with backend order entry systems, and Web-based customer care systems are being directly linked with the backend customer information and accounting systems.
While the Web has achieved the extraordinary feat of providing ubiquitous accessibility to end-users, it has in many cases reinforced manual inefficiencies in business processes as repetitive tasks are required to transcribe or copy and paste data from browser windows into desktop and corporate applications.
Business units that have previously been unable to agree on middleware and data interchange standards were (by default) agreeing on HTTP and HTML as data communication and presentation standards. Because of the overwhelming focus on the browser, almost all Web applications required interaction with a human user. The problem of direct access to Web data from within business applications had until recent years been largely ignored, as had the possibility of using the Web as a platform for automated information exchange between organizations.
One problem with prior art Web information transfer technology is that there are many different message encoding techniques used by various applications on the Web. When one application wishes to message another it must generate a message in an encoding that it knows, and the message must be delivered to the recipient application in an encoding that the recipient knows. The sender might use any of a number of encodings, and the recipient may require a different encoding.
The problem of communication between systems using different native data formats can be addressed in a number of ways. E.g., the system at one end can take responsibility for converting back and forth between its own native format and that of the other system, with communications always handled in the native language/encoding format of the other system. Or each system could communicate in a common data format, e.g., conventional EDI, or using a common wire protocol, e.g., (e.g., CORBA ORBs). The most common technique for addressing the problem has been to hardcode the translation from one particular encoding to another particular encoding. However, the limitations of hardcoded translation solutions are clear, particularly the inability to translate between other than two encodings.
There is a need, then, for an improved translation mechanism, particularly one capable of translating between multiple message encodings.
This problem of interoperability can be better understood from the following more detailed explanation.